Clippings-for-you

This is an inspiring story of an ambitious African boy who make a TED presentation.. which is a very prestigious thing .Watch this On TED .Watch any number of TED presentations and it can give you a lot of ideas to make powerful presentations

This will be the effect of an excellent presentation..the audience will be thrilled .You like it .. please read ahead to do it .. you ca  do it...

How to Give a Killer Presentation

by Chris Anderson

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away.

 From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

The story was inspiring and worthy of the broader audience that our TED conference could offer, but on the surface, Richard seemed an unlikely candidate to give a TED Talk. He was painfully shy. His English was halting. When he tried to describe his invention, the sentences tumbled out incoherently. And frankly, it was hard to imagine a preteenager standing on a stage in front of 1,400 people accustomed to hearing from polished speakers such as Bill Gates, Sir Ken Robinson, and Jill Bolte Taylor.

But Richard’s story was so compelling that we invited him to speak. In the months before the 2013 conference, we worked with him to frame his story—to find the right place to begin, and to develop a succinct and logical arc of events. On the back of his invention Richard had won a scholarship to one of Kenya’s best schools, and there he had the chance to practice the talk several times in front of a live audience. 

It was critical that he build his confidence to the point where his personality could shine through. When he finally gave his talk at TED, in Long Beach, you could tell he was nervous, but that only made him more engaging—people were hanging on his every word. The confidence was there, and every time Richard smiled, the audience melted. When he finished, the response was instantaneous: a sustained standing ovation.

Since the first TED conference, 30 years ago, speakers have run the gamut from political figures, musicians, and TV personalities who are completely at ease before a crowd to lesser-known academics, scientists, and writers—some of whom feel deeply uncomfortable giving presentations. 

Over the years, we’ve sought to develop a process for helping inexperienced presenters to frame, practice, and deliver talks that people enjoy watching. It typically begins six to nine months before the event, and involves cycles of devising (and revising) a script, repeated rehearsals, and plenty of fine-tuning. We’re continually tweaking our approach—because the art of public speaking is evolving in real time—but judging by public response, our basic regimen works well: Since we began putting TED Talks online, in 2006, they’ve been viewed more than one billion times.

On the basis of this experience, I’m convinced that giving a good talk is highly coachable. In a matter of hours, a speaker’s content and delivery can be transformed from muddled to mesmerizing. And while my team’s experience has focused on TED’s 18-minutes-or-shorter format, the lessons we’ve learned are surely useful to other presenters—whether it’s a CEO doing an IPO road show, a brand manager unveiling a new product, or a start-up pitching to VCs.

Frame Your Story

There’s no way you can give a good talk unless you have something worth talking about. Conceptualizing and framing what you want to say is the most vital part of preparation.

Find the Perfect Mix of Data and Narrative

We all know that humans are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward.

If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject—and how much they care about it. If you assume they have more knowledge or interest than they do, or if you start using jargon or get too technical, you’ll lose them. The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too.

If you make a bad presentation ....you will see your audience like this .. you don't like it ..
so watch.. practice and deliver with confidence

APOLOGY

The Most Effective Ways to Make It Right When You Screw Up

                                                              by Heidi Grant Halvorso 

After promising your boss you would complete an important assignment on time, you realize you're behind and it's going to be late. You unintentionally leave a colleague out of the loop on a joint project, causing him or her to feel frustrated and a bit betrayed. On the subway, you aren't paying attention and accidentally spill hot coffee all over a stranger's expensive suit. It's time for a mea culpa.

Apologies are tricky. Done right, they can resolve conflict, repair hurt feelings, foster forgiveness, and improve relationships. An apology can even keep you out of the courtroom. Despite the fact that lawyers often caution their clients to avoid apologies, fearing that they are tantamount to an admission of guilt, studies show that when potential plaintiffs receive an apology, they are more likely to settle out of court for less money.

However, as anyone can tell you, most apologies don't go so well. Ask John Galliano, for instance. Or John Edwards, or Todd Aiken, or Kanye West. (I could go on and on.) An apology is no guarantee that you'll find yourself out of hot water.

This is usually either because the person or persons from whom you are seeking forgiveness really aren't interested in forgiving, or because the transgression itself is deemed unforgivable. But more often than not, your apology falls flat because you're apologizing the wrong way.

In a nutshell, the problem is that most people tend to make their apologies about themselves—about their intentions, thoughts, and feelings.

"I didn't mean to..."

"I was trying to..."

"I didn't realize..."

"I had a good reason..."

When you screw up, the victim of your screw up does not want to hear about you. Therefore, stop talking about you and put the focus of your apology where it belongs: on him or her. Specifically, concentrate on how the victim has been affected by your mistake, on how the person is feeling, and on what he or she needs from you in order to move forward.

Thanks to recent research on effective apologies, you can fine-tune your approach even further according to your relationship with the recipient of the apology:

You Are A Stranger or Mere Acquaintance

The guy in the coffee-stained suit wants an offer of compensation. Offers of compensation are attempts to restore balance through some redeeming action. Sometimes the compensation is tangible, like paying to repair or replace your neighbor's fence when you inadvertently back your car into it, or running out to get your girlfriend a new phone when you accidentally drop hers into the toilet (which happened to me, by the way. Not cool.) Offers of compensation can also be more emotional or socially-supportive. (as in,"I'm sorry I acted like a jerk, and I'll make it up to you by being extra thoughtful from now on.")

You Are My Partner, Colleague, or Friend

The colleague you accidentally left out of the loop doesn't want compensation. When you have a relationship with the injured party, you will instead need to take his or her perspective and express empathy. Expressions of empathy involve recognizing and expressing concern over the suffering you caused. (e.g., "I'm so sorry that I didn't appreciate all of your effort. You must have felt awful, and that's the last thing I want.") Through expressions of empathy, the victim feels understood and valued as a partner in the relationship, and trust is restored.

You Let Our Team Down

In the modern workplace, we often operate as teams. So when you fail to meet an important deadline, chances are it's not just your boss that's affected—it's your whole team, and possibly your whole organization. In team settings, people don't want compensation or empathy—they want an acknowledgement of violated rules and norms. Basically, you need to admit that you broke the code of behavior of your social group, your organization, or your society. (e.g., "I have a responsibility to my team/organization/family/community and I should have known better. I didn't just let myself down, I let others who count on me down.")

When you think about it, it's surprising that we're often so bad at apologizing. After all, we are frequently on the receiving end of apologies ourselves—so we should know what works and what doesn't. In reality, we often forget what it's like to be on the other side—whether we're trying to apologize, impress, persuade, help, or motivate. 

So when crafting your apology, remember to ask yourself the following: Who am I talking to, and what is he or she looking for in my apology? The guy on the subway still dripping from your morning joe doesn't want to hear that you "feel his pain"—but when you forget your wife's birthday, she most definitely would like you to feel hers.

"It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize."

--Walt Whitman

The BUDDHA

The news that came out about the attack on Mahabodhi temple is an attack on civilization..what is this .. we do not understand ...It is a great shame to the whole of humanity..feelings of insecurity and helplessness creep in ...and we even feel guilty for not making a serious attempt to protect our great monuments...which has contributed unimaginable and great wisdom tot eh whole world. Great monuments are not history , they are living things which inspire the whole world to think better and do good things ..  

Varma

The whole humanity remembers you and is being inspired by 

YOU and YOUR GREAT TEACHINGS and it will continue for ever and ever ......Bless us 

Where Buddha became enlightened-

THE HINDU

A. SRIVATHSAN

·         

The Mahabodhi temple (top) and the Bodhi tree.— PHOTOS : SARVESH, Ranjeet Kumar

·         

The temple, Bodhi tree, and six other sacred spots spread over 12 acres is a World Heritage site

Among the four places held most sacred by Buddhists, the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya, located about 115 km south of Patna, is the most visited. The other three, Lumbini, where he was born; Kusinagar, where he attained Mahaparinirvana; and Sarnath, where he gave his first sermon, are equally important, but Bodh Gaya is special. It is here Siddharth the restless and inquisitive prince turned Buddha, the enlightened.

The Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa or Peepal tree) under which the Buddha is believed to have meditated and attained enlightenment is located within this temple complex and venerated.

Ashoka built first temple

Emperor Ashoka built the first temple near Bodhi tree during the 3rd Century BCE, almost 300 years after Buddha’s period (566-486 B.C.E). The temple was later rebuilt, and the present structure is datable to the late Gupta period — 6th century CE. Fahien and Hieun Tsang, the Chinese travellers who visited in 5th and 7th century respectively, recorded the existence of the Bodhi tree and the railing around it.

The temple was under worship until the 13th century when it fell into disuse. By that time Buddhism had declined in influence.

The structure slowly went to seed. Only during the 19th century, archaeologists and antiquarians began taking proper notice of Buddhist sites.

In 1861, British archaeologists conducted excavations in the Mahabodhi complex and later restored the temple.

The existing structure, which is 55 m tall, is among the oldest brick Buddhist temples in India and occupies an area of 5.5 acres. The temple, the Bodhi tree, and six other sacred spots — together spread over 12 acres — constitute the core heritage zone. This historic area was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2002 for its cultural and archaeological significance.

Unique management structure

The Bodh Gaya temple has a unique management structure and is governed by a special legislation.

The Bihar government owns the temple complex and enacted the Bodh Gaya Temple Act in 1949. This special arrangement had to be put in place since the Hindus who had built a Siva temple in the campus many years ago also claimed rights to manage. The government, through this Act, formed a nine-member committee in 1953 with five Hindu and four Buddhist members to run the temple. The District Magistrate heads the committee.

There is a long standing demand to implement the recommendation of the National Commission for Minorities to hand over the management of the temple complex to the Buddhists

 The whole humanity remembers you and is being inspired by 

YOU and YOUR GREAT TEACHINGS 

Breaking the rules of the gender game.

Breaking the rules of the gender game..THE HINDU

  NEERJA DASANI

APA June 2009 file photo from Tehran shows woman supporter of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, standing next to a poster of him, whistling, as she films an election rally at the Heidarnia stadium AP Photo

TOPICS

 Views Unlimited

social issue

I’m a whistler; I’ve been one for a long time now. But the deciding moment, when I knew that it had to become an inseparable part of my ever-shifting identity, was at the age of ten when a teacher at the ‘alternative’ school I went to commanded me to cease my exalted exhalations. “How unladylike!” she said, and all at once I was introduced to this alien concept. There was apparently a world in which ‘ladies’ didn’t whistle and unless I learnt the rules of this strange place soon, there was a distinct possibility of my being left in an unladylike lurch. Not knowing any better, I decided to take my chances and went my whistle some way.

In retrospect it seems quite apt that I should’ve had my first gender-minder in school, for gender is something that we are schooled into. Not because the process happens in school alone, but because it is a deliberate and systematic drawing up of boundaries and definitions within which the gender less child must learn to box itself into, much like the rest of formal education. Once we’re at home in the construct provided to us, we’re given our gender roles, taught our places and instructed not to cross the line. Soon it becomes an unquestioned part of us and we accept that the world is divided into masculine and feminine, with some even claiming the two belong to altogether different planets.

We see these messages all around us, whether it’s in politics, sport, entertainment, advertising, media, religion, you name it. We’re constantly being told how to be ‘a man’s man’ or ‘a woman of substance’ – but have you ever wondered why everyone seems to feel the need to constantly tell us how it’s done? If it was so natural, shouldn’t it be more self-explanatory? Why does our gender come with so many ‘Instructions for use’? Feminists across the world have been asking us these questions for over sixty years but their voices have often been drowned out in a sea of submissiveness. The questions though keep coming.

In a thought-provoking talk on the notion of masculinity to the Minnesota Men’s Action Network, Robert Jensen, Journalism professor at the University of Texas and a feminist, set out a simple exercise for people to try. If a small boy came up to you and asked what it means to be a man, what qualities would you list? The audience responded with words like affectionate, respectful, independent, sensitive, supportive, and helpful. These he pointed out were the idealized definitions of masculinity, while the dominant culture, which represents the established and prescribed forms of behaviour, customs and communication in society, answers the question in a very different way. In its scheme of things, men must be assertive, aggressive, competitive, unemotional and born with a sense of entitlement. It is this disconnect that lays bare the process of socialisation and the gap we must bridge if we are to move towards a gender-just society.

When the exercise is taken to its logical conclusion, we find that all the qualities listed as idealised definitions of masculinity are actually our understanding of what it means to be a decent human being. Can we therefore, confidently state there are certain qualities exclusive to men and others exclusive only to women? This isn’t to say there are no differences between the sexes, but to question whether these differences are so fundamental as to divide us.

In many ways it is the warped notion of manhood, or mardangi, which lies at the heart of the matter. The one that peddles sexist ideas such as testicles equals courage or spouts dialogues like ‘Mard hai to dikha!’ (If you’re a man prove it!) or believes that control over others is a way of life. This is what social theorists refer to as ‘toxic masculinity’, a patriarchal mindset, whose central tenet is domination, whether it is over human beings, nature, nations or just a parking spot. Don McPherson, a former sportsperson and now an outspoken feminist, believes that today “We don’t raise boys to be men. We raise them not to be women or gay men.”

One of the ways in which this mindset is created is through language. For years now linguists concerned with issues of gender have been pointing to the massive male bias in our daily conversations. The de-facto use of the male pronoun and as linguist Dale Spender puts it the ‘male-as-norm’ structure of the idiom, may seem to be just a matter of convenience, but it is more than that. It promotes the notion of men being the sole subject of language while everything else is just a suffix, an add-on, of no value to the words themselves. In her remarkable book ‘Man Made Language’, Spender observes that words that degrade and insult women far outnumber those that diminish men. In fact the ultimate insults that can be hurled at men who are not stereotypically male are all either female-coded or homophobic words.

This sort of violence in language and ideas is not representative of all men and is harmful to them as well. It is in acknowledgment of this that an increasing number of men (and women) are now coming together to create counter-narratives to the dominant view of masculinity by accepting, discussing and creating new ideas on manhood, gender and sexuality. The ‘Skirt the Issue’ campaign in Bangalore this January, where a group of young men took to the streets in skirts to counter the notion that rape is tied to a woman’s choice of apparel, was one such conscious and creative action. Interestingly, parts of the media and academia seem to be lagging behind in this pluralistic initiative with theories on ‘Masculinity in crisis’ abounding, as if it were an endangered monument in need of state support. Why isn’t ‘femininity’ ever in crisis? Surely, ‘puberty’ would be a more likely candidate for something that sounds so hormonal and full-blown?

Further, the people doing the work of rethinking our gender relations and consciously resisting sexist stereotypes openly admit their indebtedness to the feminist struggle, with many more people, especially men, now calling themselves feminists. People are beginning to see that the portrayal of women, who advocate gender justice, as ugly, man-hating, bra-burners, is a deliberate attempt to keep things as they are. Those whose interests are served by sustaining a male-dominated, unequal society see any questioning of their self-appointed authority as a threat. They welcome more laws, policing, armies and weapons, since it gives them more opportunities for muscle-flexing and a false sense of security, but are less open to structural changes that require dialogue and compassion, which they know would ultimately lead to them losing power and control.

But the voices of change are gradually getting louder and louder. An inspiring instance of this is the ‘Who Needs Feminism?’ campaign that began at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, but has since caught on in many other places, including some close to home, like Lahore. A student-led initiative, the campaign consists quite simply of a series of photographs of people holding up signs stating their reasons for supporting feminism. The range of responses is fascinating with some rejecting the objectification of human beings, being judged on the basis of appearances instead of intelligence, or living with the constant fear of sexual assault, while others talk of needing to confront their own privileges, questioning the present power structures and striving for equality. The one that sums things up quite neatly, paraphrasing activist Lilla Watson’s words, is by a male student. It reads: ‘I need feminism because my liberation is bound up with yours’.

This spirit of coming together is what is evident around us today; the understanding that the fight is no longer about women alone, but for a collective future in which no one has power over another

Clippings

Clippings are selections from various sources( any topic ) and I feel that many of the readers will find it useful 

Science for the poor.. THE HINDU

+  

Dr Y Nayudamma: A Biography, K. Chandrahas

TOPICS

books and literature

Indian literature

biographies

A biography may be defined as the written history of a person, with attention not only to the events in his life, but also to the character and disposition of the person. A good biography holds a mirror against the person — neither hyperbole, nor understatement.

This biography of Dr. Y. Nayudamma comes close to the model created by James Boswell inLife of Johnson. The reader receives the impression of walking with the man in flesh and blood.

Born as the eldest child of simple and illiterate parents in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh, Nayudamma grew up in a rural environment until he went to Benares Hindu University for his graduation in Industrial Chemistry.

Nayudamma was a scientist of the people and for the people. A deep concern for the poor in rural India was always an obsession for him. He firmly believed that technology was the engine of growth. His credo was to bring some sunshine into the lives of the rural poor.

He joined the Central Leather Research Institute at Chennai in 1943 as a Demonstrator, on a salary of Rs.17 a month. Sheer merit and hard work won for him an opportunity for training in England in 1946. From the U.K., Nayudamma went to the U.S. to pursue MS, and Ph.D in Leather Technology — the first to get a doctorate in the country in this academic field.

In 1951, he returned to CLRI as Assistant Director. However, within a fortnight, he was promoted as Deputy Director, as the powers that be sought to set right an anomaly that “Assistant Directorship was too low a position” for him.

Six years later, when the incumbent Director passed away, Nayudamma was the obvious choice for the vacancy. But as he was quite young — only 34 years old — he was given the job only on a temporary basis. He was equally at home with the peasant and the prime minister. In his illustrious career, he collaborated with three different Prime Ministers. Nayudamma always did what seemed to him as right, and he could not be bullied or bamboozled by unrighteous might.

Meeting with Nehru

Two years later, when the issue of permanency surfaced, the Prime Minister, “Jawaharlal Nehru (himself) wished to interview Nayudamma personally. The appointment with Nehru was around midnight … He (Nehru) told Nayudamma that he would be the youngest person to head a national institute and asked him point blank what he (Nayudamma) proposed to do to develop the age old leather industry.”

Nayudamma replied: “I’ll endeavour to infuse scientific temper to the tradition-bound leather industry, being pursued by the socially and economically downtrodden leather artisans and help in their socio-economic uplift.” Nehru was impressed with that reply and Nayudamma was confirmed as the Director.

Indira’s choice

Thirteen years later, in 1971, Nayudamma was selected by another Prime Minister — Indira Gandhi — to head the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) at Delhi. Nayudamma accomplished a complete overhaul and rejuvenation of CSIR, during the six years that he served as the Director-General.

When there was a change in the political leadership, despite the new Prime Minister Morarji Desai asking him to continue as the DG, Nayudamma chose to resign. He returned to CLRI intending to devote the rest of his life working for the welfare of the leather artisans.

But destiny had different plans for him. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister for the fourth time, invited him to become the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at Delhi, which had a bag of woes.

On his first day at JNU, Nayudamma was greeted by the demonstrators of a 55-day old strike. But the same evening, after several hours of discussion, the strike was called off.

Nayudamma tried his best to set things right, but in vain. After 16 months, he quit his job at JNU. He realised that his “diagnosis and prognosis” were not acceptable to the hard core bureaucracy.

His end was tragic and traumatic. He was a passenger in the ill-fated Air India flight from Canada – “Emperor Kanishka” – that crashed off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985. He had changed from Swiss Air to Air India in the last minute, so that he might arrive in India a few hours earlier.

(R. Devarajan is a management consultant)

Keywords: Dr Y Nayudamma: A Biography, K. Chandrahas

Child marriage

Rally against child marriage: KSSP..THE HINDU

Ads by Google

SOCIAL ISSUE: Amar, child specialist, addressing a discussion on ‘Child marriage’, organised by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.— Photo: S. Mahinsha

: Speakers at a discussion on ‘Whether to legitimise child marriage’ here on Wednesday called for a sustained campaign to bring to public domain the ill-effects of allowing girls to marry at a young age and stressed the need for “physical” intervention by socially oriented organisations to prevent child marriage.

In her opening remarks, the former president of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) T. P Radhamoni said the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 treats marriage of young girls as a non-bailable and cognizable offence but still if incidents of child marriage take place, the reasons could be ascertained. The need of the hour was to strengthen implementation of the Act and also to make physical intervention by organisations to prevent such incidents.

The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, which organised the discussion, in a survey found that women were aware of the Act. Some of the parents interviewed in the survey said they had married off their daughters at an early age as it would be difficult to find a suitable match at a later age.

They also cited the demand for dowry as one of the reasons.

Physical intervention, she explained, did not mean staging a protest before a hall where a child marriage was solemnized but informing the law enforcement agencies, including the police and also at the governmental level.

She called upon Parishad volunteers to create awareness oft the perils of child marriage.

Explaining about the health hazards of child marriage, Amar, a child specialist, said girls married at a young age suffer general, reproductive and mental health deterioration. Pregnancy poses many challenge to women and child marriage enhances health risk, he added.

A child has the right to be a child

He or She has to grow and make decisions

Every parent should human dignity

And allow the child to enjoy childhood

Let the life cycle takes its own course 

Let the child enjoy,grow wise and become a mother

                                  Varma